Category: Scratched

It's TV for radio on the internet.

Hosted by Brett Cropley, Josh Kinal and Ross McQueen, Boxcutters will take you on a tour through the world of television once a week.

While the team likes to think of it as broadcasting on the internet (because of the high ambitions of radio potential) the show will take the form more commonly known as podcasting (a.k.a. computer-magic radio).

Where can you find such a delightful chocolate-box of tasty nougat information about television, what's on it and how it could be better? Well, we haven't worked that one out yet.

We're recording episode one tonight and it will be available from tomorrow. As soon as information is made available I'll let you know. In fact, I can tell you that there will definitely be a link on this site. Just keep checking.

Listen to the first episode so when you get famous you can tell all your friends "they used to be better."

This is a great article about the basics of design. It's the sort of thing that anybody thinking about designing their own website should read first, just to give them an idea of the sorts of things you need to take into account. The last thing you want is to end up with a website like Strategic Hedgemony, or whatever it's actually called.

Also, anyone who's ever been the client of a designer or intends to be the client of a designer should read Be Cooler by Design in this month's Fast Company magazine.

Thanks to Brainstorms & Raves and Web Pages That Suck for the links.

The Schappelle Corby case has been reopened in Bali today. While travelling there were a number of people who asked me about the case and what the feelings of the Australian people were. I struggled to find an answer that could sum up the confusion regarding her innocence. I watched the judgement as it was given and it seemed that she was guilty of a very specific crime. That crime was taking drugs through customs into Indonesia and therefor "importing" them into the country. The other charges were never even read and judgement was given on them so there's never been a definitive court ruling on whether or not the bag of wacky-tabaccy was actually hers and whether or not there was intent to import, distribute, sell or throw a massive down-key party.

Of course none of this really matters. The Corby family have, apparently, cashed in with Channel 9 and both parties should be found guilty of exploiting what must be a horrific experience for any Australian traveller.

And none of that matters either because all the Australian public cares about is what Schappelle is wearing today. Thankfully the article in today's Age, Corby faces court as case reopens, has that answer for us:

"Corby was caught in a media crush as she arrived at the Denpasar District Court today.
Wearing a white shirt and blacks pants, said nothing as she was taken through the melee." -- The Age

Whether or not this is true, it has to be the worst idea I've heard in a long time. Apparently Drew Barrymore has asked Steven Spielberg to oversee a new ET film.

No No No No No!

I doubt even ET could fix that ouch.

To be constructively critical, the magic that dazzled us in the first film is no longer impressive and it would take a killer script with some heavy emotion to make it seem like more than just a dash for cash. I'm sure there are opportunities for feel-good movies that involve original ideas rather than the desecration of our memories of a classic.

Link to article

After around 7 years of idolising his work and converting countless friends to his genius, I finally had the opportunity to meet Douglas Coupland yesterday. I was amazed at how many people had no idea who he was. I was so excited in the lead up to this weekend I was telling everybody and anybody what was going to happen. My joy and excitement was matched with blank stares and sorrowful glances. I think that people might have actually felt bad for me that I was excited about something or someone that they had never heard of. Just another curious way society works.

Douglas Coupland (always being referred to by the two names, not yet at the level of recognition attained by Steinbeck, Hemingway and Salinger) has always been somewhat of a litmus test for friendship. The friends I have kept over the years, the ones who keep popping up over time, the ones I will never lose, are those who are Coupland fans, whether or not I was responsible for their introduction. His books speak of life and the world as I know it. He magnifies existence through his method of taking reality, stretching and exaggerating it and then incubating it on paper to be digested as fiction. More than just storytelling and more than just social commentary, Douglas Coupland walks the line.

I'm glad to have been able to spend the two minutes I did with him. It's a rare opportunity and it was pricelessly encouraging.